GAVCA

In January 1996 Gloucester Centre for Voluntary Services (GCVS), as it was then called, was established in response to an identified need for a local development agency to support and promote the voluntary and community sector within the City of Gloucester.

Since 2004, with the agreement of its partner infrastructure organisations in the county, GAVCA has had an increasing role in developing some of its services across the whole county, in areas of work which benefit from a countywide response or where it is more effective and efficient to provide a countywide service

In April 2006, Gloucester VCS merged with its counterpart in Cheltenham, and developed a new service in the town funded through a service level agreement with Cheltenham Borough Council and providing similar services to those available in Gloucester. More recently, we have been working with Tewkesbury Borough Council to develop a similar model of accountable VCS representation to enable the VCS to engage in the local strategic partnership, and have launched a Tewkesbury VCS Forum. We are now hoping to also increase our support to groups in the Cotswolds and, as our membership across the county grows, to ensure that we can support all our members wherever they are located.

In 2008, the organisation changed its name to GAVCA, the Gloucestershire Association for Voluntary and Community Action, to acknowledge the countywide role that it now plays.